The purpose of this Master thesis is to examine whether the term elasticity is relevant and functional to apply to public library organisations. Another aim of the thesis is to relate the term elasticity to public library organisations in a network society. Sociologist Manuel Castells provide the theoretical framework on the network society. Three investigations (meant to complement each other) in two Swedish public libraries seek to give answers to these questions.To be able to examine which areas of public library activity are elastic, I make a rough definition of what public library organisations consist of ? nine activity fields are identified using IFLA?s guidelines in combination with Swedish law of public libraries.

In recent years there has been an upsurge in products and activities designed for infants, what is known as baby culture. The essay is a discourse analysis covering the part of baby culture which is concerned with infants and books. The essay studies texts from libraries and children?s bookclubs in order to understand what it is they communicate, to whom and the conceivable consequences of the communicated message. One of the main purposes of the study is to determine what view of infants as social and cultural beings it  is that arises from the texts.

The purpose of the work is to highlight schools work to prevent bullying and abusive treatment, find out about schools work to prevent bullying and abusive treatment follow what is written in the governing documents and how schools can work preventively against the same. The questions have been investigated through qualitative interviews and analysis of documents or in the theoretical background. The interviewees and partially schools were selected through an arbitrarily selection. In each plan against abusive treatment states that the monitoring and evaluation should be conducted in a manner that is not consistent with the responses from leisure educator 1, 2 and 3. School B's plan does not contain an overview of the measures needed to prevent and stop abusive treatment of children.

This study investigates if, and in that case, how design theory is applied in practice in the web development field. Prior research has focused on methods used in the web development field. We wanted to study the designers role in a web design process by comparing existing designer roles with design theory literature. We did qualitative interviews with two practitioners at two different communication agencies in northern Sweden. Based on our qualitative data and literature review we have concluded that a designer has to devote a lot of energy on requirements engineering in order to develop a clear understanding of the design situation..

There are many barriers and obstacles that need to be removed to make the urban environment more accessible for people with disabilities. There are currently no adequate tools for urban planners to assess and address these obstacles. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide powerful methods for the visualization and analysis of spatial data, including the kind of data important in studies of accessibility. This study suggests a method urban planners can use to identify accessibility obstacles and to propose future actions to fix them.A literature review was conducted to find out what has been done and what is new regarding the accessibility issues. Different methods were evaluated which in turn led to the construction of a multi-step analytical strategy.

AbstractAccording to 3 § in the Equal Opportunities Act should employer fulfil their commitment to their employees and work targeted for the equality in working life. In the report we account for 3?11 §§ Equal Opportunities Act, in purpose to show employer obligations to work actively work for equality between the sexes. This is the main focus of the article and the answer to one of our issue of law. We have also written about how equality work and how the Equal Opportunities Act has grown up, how it work in today?s society and the thoughts about the future.The growth of equality work, the Equal Opportunities Act and a short history are partially written from European law, the Swedish government official reports and in government bills.

The purpose of this study was to examine the incentives behind Sweden?s decision to engagein the Afghanistan conflict.The method used to fulfil the purpose of the study is content analysis. The material that hasbeen used in the study is various books and articles concerning Sweden in Afghanistan,Swedish foreign policy and perspectives in political science.The study is multi-theoretical and thus the analysis explains the incentives from a liberal, arealist and a constructivist point of view.The conclusion of the study is that identity has a great part in explaining the incentives forSweden to engage in Afghanistan, especially because of the transformation in strategy andforeign policy that has taken place since the end of the cold war. Other factors, such as peacebuilding and national interests also are incentives supported by the material used in the study.Yet, perhaps they are first and foremost connected by the constructivist idea of identity..

Sweden has had laws protecting nature for about a hundred years. In this paper the views of nature and the values that serve as a rationale for protective measures are analyzed as results of a social process characterized by the dialectic relationship between institutions and discourse. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is used to study this relationship and the discursive practices used by institutions, which reproduce or reshape views of nature that define the relationship between society and nature. Institutional design contributes to shaping discourse in the field of nature protection, while being originally shaped by discourse. In Sweden, the national park is an institution that reproduces a view of nature as the wild and untamed opposite of society, and the natural reserves reproduce a view of nature as holder of a multi-faceted set of values intertwined with society.

AbstractAimThe aim of the pilot study was to compare short- and long-term effects from group exercise in water with land-based exercise on pain at rest and pain with movement, along with the effects on function in daily life and practice of sports and leisure activities in patients with knee osteoarthritis. The aims were: Is there a difference in short- and long-term effects on pain intensity at rest and pain with movement after exercise in water or land in patients with knee osteoarthritis? Is there a correlation between the degree of pain intensity at rest and with movement, respectively and long-term effects from the two different exercises on function in daily life and practice of sports and leisure? MethodThe study was a randomized intervention study without a control group. Twenty patients with radiographic knee osteoarthritis were under a total of eight weeks treated with either land- or water-based exercise lead by a physiotherapist. The patients rated pain intensity at rest and with movement on a numerical rating scale (NRS) before and after the first training session, before and after the eighth training session, before and after the fifteenth training session and before the last and sixteenth training session.

AbstractAccording to 3 § in the Equal Opportunities Act should employer fulfil their commitment to their employees and work targeted for the equality in working life. In the report we account for 3?11 §§ Equal Opportunities Act, in purpose to show employer obligations to work actively work for equality between the sexes. This is the main focus of the article and the answer to one of our issue of law. We have also written about how equality work and how the Equal Opportunities Act has grown up, how it work in today?s society and the thoughts about the future.The growth of equality work, the Equal Opportunities Act and a short history are partially written from European law, the Swedish government official reports and in government bills.

SUMMARYThere was no previous study in what high level dressage riders had for ideas of how to best prepare for their training sessions with an instructor. Neither any study of how high level dressage riders seemed to be more or less susceptible to the instructions from their instructor during their training sessions. If the sport had more knowledge about this, it might result in more riders on a higher level. The purpose of this study was to find out how high level dressage riders are preparing themselves for the best result for an instructor led training session and how they could bring as much as possible instructions from the coach. The two questions of the study were: How are high level dressage riders preparing themselves for a training session with an instructor, practically and mentally, and how can they affect their susceptibility to instructions?The study was carried out both by reviewing existing literature and studies in general education and pedagogy in the riding education, and by a qualitative interview study of six dressage riders who rode on a difficult level at the competitions, during the year of 2009.

The study tries to increase the understanding of the phenomenon known as the Big bath, on the question whether the market accepts Big bath accounting principle or not. Big bath is an accounting theory meaning that a company is likely to increase its impairment in a specific year. This could be as a reaction on a change in the leadership, a depreciation of the result or maybe an external decrease in demand. Through a quantitative survey of the market it is examining whether the companies themselves are inclined to use the procedure and if the stock market accepts it. The study concludes that Big bath similar procedures are a fairly common accounting practice and that the stock market does not seem to mind. .

The study aims to analyze conceptions of death and dying at a clinic for palliative care, using a constructivist perspective and a discourse analytical approach. The empirical material consists of interviews with staff members, documents and photographs of the environment, taking both space and materiality into account. I conclude that the studied practice is mainly characterized by a tension between a caring discourse and a medical discourse..

The case study we conducted describes market for transmission of terrestrial digital TV. The purpose of this study is to find out what hinders potential entrants from entering the market as well as to discuss possible competitive strategies for potential entrants. Our conclusion is that even though the market for transmission of terrestrial digital TV can be viewed as attractive due to its fast growth, there are barriers to entry that block companies we identified as potential entrants from entering the market. The industry experience of the current market players (Teracom and Boxer) along with their knowledge of the consumers and the fact that Teracom is a multi-business company are some of the factors to be taken into consideration. Switching costs is the most important barrier to entry for the industry.

Tail-biting in pigs is an animal welfare issue and in Sweden during 2002 the producers lost tree million Swedish crowns because of tail biting. This economic loss depends on the pigs which are discarded at slaughter because of tail biting. Tail biting can be separated into two stages, "pre-injury" and "injury". The aim of this study is to investigate if tail biting depends on environment or genetic background.A lot of research on the environments effects on the behaviour of pigs but not so much on the genetic effects has been performed. The frequency of tail biting in pig farms influence among others of environment enrichment, ventilation, gender and breed of the pig.